The invention relates to a programmable medicine dispenser. More particularly, the invention relates to a medicine dispenser which dispenses medicine to the user at the appropriate times of the day, throughout the week, as programmed and filled by a pharmacist.
When a doctor prescribes a medication, the prescription usually dictates the dosage and how often the medication is to be ingested. In most cases, the prescribed instructions are easy to follow by the patient.
When numerous medications are prescribed simultaneously, however, it is difficult for any patient to remember when a certain medicine is to be taken, whether that medication has already been taken, and to avoid confusing different medications. Further, people suffering from various mental infirmities often have difficulty taking the correct medications. In addition, since people are living longer lives, an increasing amount of medications are prescribed to help maintain the health of these older people.
In addition a prevalent problem with certain medications is abuse. When a medication makes a person feel better but loses effectiveness before the next dose is to be taken, the patient will often take another dose of the medication xe2x80x9cearlyxe2x80x9d, and/or might xe2x80x9cdouble upxe2x80x9d the dose. Failing to follow the prescription can be extremely harmful to the patient""s health, and can lead to addiction.
Further, when people later realize that they did not take their medicine at the appropriate time, they often take the medicine much later. Such practice is discouraged by physicians and pharmacists for many medications. However, it is very difficult for a physician and pharmacist to maintain patient compliance with such rules.
Certain devices have been provided which attempt to maintain compliance with prescriptions among patients. These devices include clocks and pill boxes which warn the user when to take medicine. Other devices allow precision dispensing of medicines, yet do not accommodate numerous medicine xe2x80x98takingsxe2x80x99 per day, do not prevent xe2x80x98double dosesxe2x80x99 and are not tamperproof. While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.
It is an object of the invention to provide a medicine dispensing device which dispenses the proper medications to a patient at the intended times. Accordingly, the device keeps medicines dosages within a carrier. Each carrier is associated with one particular time of day at which medicines are to be taken. All medicines to be taken at that time of day, and only medicines to be taken at that time of day are pre-loaded into the carrier by a physician or pharmacist. The carriers are dispensed to the user at the appropriate time.
It is another object of the invention to provide a medicine dispensing system which is tamper-proof, so as to prevent a patient from circumventing the system to take medicine at an inappropriate time. Accordingly, the system is contained within a tough housing, which is locked and only openable by the physician or pharmacist.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a medicine dispensing system which notifies a patient when to take the dose. Accordingly, an alarm sounds to prompt the patient to take the medication.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a medicine dispensing system which helps maintain compliance by preventing a person from taking medication later than the time it is dispensed. Accordingly, the medicine carrier is dispensed into a compartment having a retrieval door, and the system senses when the retrieval door is opened. Thus, the alarm will continue to sound until the patient opens the retrieval door to retrieve the carrier. If the carrier is not removed within a predetermined time period, the medicine carrier will be automatically removed from the compartment and placed into a storage compartment where it cannot be retrieved by the patient.
The invention is a medicine dispensing system for dispensing medicine carriers, wherein each medicine carrier contains medicine which is to be dispensed at an appropriate time of the day and week for that carrier, having a housing. The housing has a patient accessible medicine retrieval compartment. The medicine carriers are placed within tubes located within a housing by a pharmacist, who may access the tubes through a pharmacist access panel. Actuator motors allows the carriers to be moved to the medicine retrieval compartment at the appropriate time of the day and week, as specified by the programming of the pharmacist. Once in the retrieval compartment, the patient can remove carrier and ingest the medicine contained therein. If the medicine carrier is not removed from the retrieval compartment by the patient within a predetermined time, the medicine carrier is moved to a storage compartment which is not accessible by the patient.
To the accomplishment of the above and related objects the invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Attention is called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only. Variations are contemplated as being part of the invention, limited only by the scope of the claims.